DISCIPLESHIP

When
is it Right To Fight? Part Two

By
Pastor Rick WarrenSaddleback Church

Yes, someday, but
it's not going to happen until Jesus Christ comes back. The Bible says that one
day Jesus Christ is going to come back to earth a second time. In fact, the Bible
talks more about Jesus' second coming than it does about His first. There are
far more verses in the Bible about Jesus' second coming than there are about His
first coming at Bethlehem. In John 14, Jesus said it like this, "Let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a
place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also." Jesus said, "I'm
going back to heaven and if I go, I'm going to prepare a place and I'm coming
back."

Did He go? Yes he did. Is He coming back? Absolutely. As surely
as He said He was going, He's coming back. The Bible says that when He comes back,
He will set up a reign of peace on the earth. Isaiah and many other scriptures
describe it. This is what it's going to be like: "He (Jesus) will settle disputes
among nations. They will hammer their swords into plows and their spears into
pruning knives. Nations will never again to go to war, never prepare for battle
again." That sounds pretty good to me. This verse is over the United Nations.
"They'll hammer their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives."
But they forgot the most important part -- "He will settle the disputes." He --
Jesus! Not the United Nations. We'll never have ultimate peace until the Prince
of Peace establishes His reign on the earth. So there is going to be a day of
permanent peace someday when Jesus comes back.

The question I've probably
been asked more than any other one ...

4. IS THIS THE FINAL WAR?

Is
this the war that's leading up to the Second Coming of Christ? We don't know.
It could be. But we don't know. The Bible makes it very clear that history is
moving toward a climax. One day it will be climaxed by a great battle which will
involve Israel called the Battle of Armegeddon. It will be fought in the Valley
of Megiddo.

About four or five years ago, Tom and I went to Israel and
stood on the mountain that overlooked that great valley of Megiddo. The Bible
says there will be a great war there. Anytime an outbreak occurs in the Middle
East, people start asking, "Is this it? Is this the end war?" And the answer is,
"We don't know."

You need to understand that the Arab-Israeli conflict
goes back thousands and thousands of years. It's all Abraham's fault. It is. God
told Abraham that he was going to have a son one day that would be a great nation,
the nation of Israel. He was going to have the son by Sarah. At 80 years old,
Sarah still hadn't had a kid. At 89 she still hadn't had a kid. So Abraham said,
"Maybe I'd better take matters into my own hands." He had a child through Sarah's
handmaiden. Her baby was Ishmael. God said, "He's not the one I wanted, but I'm
going to bless him anyway. He will be a great nation, too." Ishmael is the father
of the Arabs. Then later Isaac was born who's the father of the Jewish nation.
So Ishmael and Isaac were half-brothers. What we've got going on over there is
a family feud.

The Bible says that one day there will be a climatic battle,
but we don't know if this is it or not. I'm no expert on the Second Coming, but
I do know somebody who is so I thought I'd invite Him here today. His name is
Jesus. He knows a little bit more than anybody else. Let's look at what He has
to say about the end of times.

Luke 21:8-9 "Don't be fooled. Many will
come in My name saying, `I am He!' and `The time has come!' But don't follow them.
Don't be afraid when you hear of wars and revolutions; such things must happen
but they don't mean the end is near. Countries will fight each other and kingdoms
will attack one another."

First He says, "Don't be fooled..." Circle that.
Don't believe everything you hear or read. I used to have a collection of books
that proclaimed This was the last war. In the twentieth century, every single
war practically that's been fought somebody's written a book on it and said, "This
is the end!" There were people who said World War I was the end war. Kaiser was
the antichrist. Then they said World War II was the end war and Hitler was the
antichrist. On and on.

I want to say this: There have been dozens and dozens
of books that have set dates and time. Every one of them have been wrong. One
hundred percent wrong.

Notice it says "...such things must happen..." Underline
that. In the last 3,421 years there have only been 268 years that have seen no
war. During the last 5,560 years -- recorded history -- there have been 14,531
wars averaging a little over 2.6 wars each year. In the history of 185 generations,
only ten of those generations have experienced unbroken peace. So when Jesus said
"There's going to be wars and rumors of wars" He knew what He was talking about.
We live in a fallen world.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:36 "No one knows that
day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
Look who Jesus said knows about the Second Coming. Any time you read a book on
the Second Coming that says "This is when it's going to happen. This is the day,"
I can guarantee you one thing. They're wrong. Anytime someone picks a date and
says, This is it, you can know it won't be on that date. That's one you can mark
off. I can have a picnic that day. Why? No one knows! Jesus said, "I don't even
know." Jesus said, "The angels don't know, I don't even know the time of the Second
Coming. Only the Father."

People ask me why I don't preach more on prophecy.
I say, "Why? Nobody knows" I could get up here and make some good guesses but
they'd all be speculation. Jesus said, "Nobody knows when it's going to happen."

Not only did He say nobody knows, He said it's none of your business. Acts
1:7-8 "It's not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own
authority. But you are to be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and the uttermost
parts of the world." He says it's not for you to know. It's none of your business.

Three times in Matthew 25 He says, "Be ready!" He could come at any time
but nobody knows the time. Acts 1:7-8 are the last words of Jesus before we went
back to heaven. You figure the last words are probably the most important thing
He wants to talk about. What do the disciples come and ask Him about. They ask
Him about the Second Coming. When are You coming back? In Acts 1:6 they say, "Lord,
when are You going to restore Your kingdom to Israel? When are you coming back?"
Jesus turns around and says, "It's none of your business. Now go out and start
sharing the faith."

Isn't it interesting how they asked a question about
prophecy and He turns the question to evangelism? They want to talk about when
He's coming back. He wants to talk about winning the world. That's the priority
of Jesus' heart. That's why He talked more about winning the world because that's
what Jesus is interested in. He wants everybody to know Him. In fact, in Matthew
24:14 it says "And the good news shall be preached to all the world to every nation
for a witness and then the end shall come." One of the signs Jesus gave was the
Good News is going to be shared with all nations. All peoples. Every people, every
tribe will have a chance to hear the gospel before He comes back.

Why hasn't
Christ come back yet? Because He's waiting until everybody He wants to have heard
the gospel has heard it. Once everybody He wants to have heard it has heard it,
He's coming back. So if you want the Lord to come back soon, it's simple. Get
out and start sharing your faith. Every time you tell somebody about Christ you're
shortening the time. Every time you share the gospel with somebody it means it's
getting shorter. He says, "It's not for you to know. Nobody knows. You just concentrate
not on when am I coming back, but you concentrate on sharing the good news with
people who are here so I can come back."

How should we respond during war?
What's the Christian response? Four things:

1. Pray. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 "First
of all pray for kings and all others who are in authority, that we may live a
quiet and peaceful life." The first things you're to pray for are our leaders.
They make the decisions. Pray for the president, pray for the generals, pray for
the congress, pray for leaders. Notice the benefit of praying for your leaders:
You'll end up living quiet and peaceful lives. We're to pray for leaders.

We
ought to pray for our soldiers, the men and women who are over there. The Bible
says we also ought to pray for our enemies. Matthew 5:44. We need to pray for
our enemies. "Pray for those who hurt you and despitefully use you and persecute
you." We ought to pray that they will have a change of heart.

2. Trust
God. Trust God in all situations. The Bible says "The Lord is my light and salvation.
Whom shall I fear? Though an army besiege me and war break out against me, even
then I will be confident." While we pray for our soldiers, we also accept the
fact in reality when war happens, there are casualties. There will be people who
lose their lives. So we're to pray and trust God realizing that God can be counted
on, that God is in control, that God knows what He's doing, and that God will
carry you through whatever situation you face.

We have many families in
our church whose husbands, fathers, brothers, sons are in the Gulf right now.
Many were here at the base and are now in the Gulf. I want to say to those of
you who have relatives there, God is with you. He will help you face whatever
the future brings. So we pray and we trust God.

3. Seek peace. What does
it mean to seek peace? "Turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it."
Seek peace means do whatever you can to bring about peace. I think that's what
it means. I think it not only means peace between nations but I think it means
peace everywhere else. You need to seek peace in your family. You need to seek
peace with your husband/your wife. You need to seek peace with your children.
You need to seek peace with people you are estranged from at work. That's the
mark of a Christian. "Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the sons
of God."

Whether you feel that the world has waited long enough or not
before they started into war I think we'd all agree that during the last five
months, there have been a lot of attempts to make peace and they saw war only
as the last resort. Over thirty different national delegations went to Iraq and
said, "This is wrong. Get out." We sent our Secretary of State, Gorbachev called,
the U.N. Secretary General went, one delegation after another, seeking peace.
It was the right thing to do. Not just jump into war but seek peace.

William
Temple: "We Christians in war are called to the hardest task of all -- to fight
without hatred, to resist without bitterness and in the end if God so grants it,
triumph without vindictiveness." We seek peace.

4. We need to support each
other. The Bible says "Carry each other's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ."
In a crisis time like this, I think this is when the church really shows itself
as a family. We are to be a family, an extended family, where we are an extended
network of support for those lives that are influenced and affected by this war.
We need to support the soldiers. One of the things that was mentioned earlier
-- if you've got old tapes, Saddleback tapes, bring them to the office. We're
going to send them over there. Right now my tapes are being played each week on
one of the carriers in the Gulf. We're going to be sending more. Anybody who wants
a copy of this tape, we'll send it to them in the Gulf. We need to support our
soldiers.

We need to support the families of our soldiers and have a prayer
chain and be an encouragement to them. If you're not in a small group, I encourage
you -- get in a small group. You need one especially in a time of international
crisis like this. I ask all of our groups this week to pray specifically for peace
in the Gulf and that God's will be done.

Our eyes are focused on a war
in the liberation of Kuwait right now. But there's another war going on. It's
been raging a long time. There is another rescue operation going on. In fact,
it's far more important than the one that's going on in the Gulf.

The Bible
says that there is a war going on for the souls of men between God and Satan.
The most used analogy for a Christian in the New Testament is a soldier -- fight
the good fight, put on the whole armor of God, fight, strive, conquer, overcome,
victory. Those are war terms that the Bible uses to represent the Christian life.
The devil is trying to pull people away from God. It is our job as agents of God
to go out and reach them with His love.

If you've never opened your life
to Christ the Bible says you're in a war with God. What you need to do is make
peace with God. If you don't have peace with God, you're not going to have peace
with other people. The Bible says that Jesus came to earth -- Hebrew 2:14-15 "Jesus
came so that through His death He might destroy the devil who has the power of
death and so set free those who were slaves all their lives because of fear of
death." He wants to set you free from the fear of death. He wants to give you
real freedom.

Galatians 1:4 "Jesus died for our sins just as God our Father
planned and rescued us." That's what salvation is all about. Jesus said, "If the
Son sets you free then you're really free." Free to a new purpose in life, a new
meaning in life. Free to significance, free to break bad habits and begin new
ones. God wants to rescue you. You need to take sides -- today, if you haven't.
Say, "I'm on God's side and I want to go with Him."

Prayer:

If you've
never said "Yes" to Jesus Christ, the Bible says that you're in a war with God.
You need to make your peace with Him today. You need to ask Christ to come into
your life and forgive you and make you a new person. Would you say in your heart,
if you haven't, "Jesus Christ, I want peace with You. I don't want to be at war
with God. I want to go Your way. Come in and save me and be my Savior. Rescue
me from wasting my life." Many of you have already made that decision. You're
Christians. You'd say, "God, I need to be a soldier for You. I realize that there
are people all around me that are dying who've never heard the Good News. Help
me to share it with them, to not hoard it but to share it with others."

Lord,
we do pray for peace in the Gulf. We pray that the war may be over quickly. We
pray for strength and wisdom for our leaders. Help them to lead with compassion,
integrity, sincerity, and wisdom. We pray for our enemies, that they may change
their mind and that peace may come quickly. We pray for the families in our church
and all over who are being affected by those who are in the war right now. We
ask Your protection and grace and blessing on them. Help us as a church family
to reach out to this community and to the base and to all who need encouragement
and support during this time. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Article
by Rick Warren, Saddleback Church. Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback
Church in Lake Forest, CA., a congregation that now averages 16,000 in attendance
each weekend. Rick is also author of The
Purpose Driven Life and The
Purpose Driven Church, and founder of Pastors.com,
a global Internet community for those in ministry. From Rick Warren's Ministry
Toolbox, a free weekly e-newsletter for those in ministry. Copyright (c) 2003
Pastors.com,
Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

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